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of building a new canal after finding traces of the ancient canals , while British soldier Francis Rawdon Chesney surveyed the area in 1830 and found no natural difficulties in forming a route he believed would benefit the ‘ great kingdoms of Europe ’.
CONSTRUCTING THE CANAL It wasn ’ t until the mid-1800s that the project began to get traction , however , with the formation of the Suez Canal Studies Society , which included a number of experts from around the world , including the famed British railwayman , Robert Stephenson . Stephenson , however , declared the route impractical – it was seen by Britain as a potential rival to the rail link from Alexandria to Suez – and it wasn ’ t until 1856 that another group of distinguished engineers from across Europe put plans together and the project got underway in 1859 .
The construction of the canal was an arduous task . Of course , in the mid-1800s , the heavy machinery that would be deployed on such a project today either didn ’ t exist or wasn ’ t readily available , and as such it was forced human labour that began digging out the canal .
It was horrendous work . Estimates put the daily figure of
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people working on the canal at 30,000 , and more than 1.5m people from different countries were employed .
Of course , it was dangerous and unsanitary work too – it ’ s estimated tens of thousands of people died during the project , many from cholera and other epidemics .
The project came to a halt in 1863 , however , when Egyptian ruler Ismail Pasha banned the use of forced labour – and this forced a change in strategy .
While they didn ’ t have the heavy machinery of today , they did have a good amount of technology available to them that they ’ d not used in favour of forced labour – an economic decision , no doubt .
After the ban on forced labour , several hundred custom made steam and coal powered shovels
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and dredgers were drafted in , and sped up the project considerably . In fact , three-quarters of the 75 million cubic metres of sand moved during the project was done so by machinery .
More than 150 years later , the canal is still a critical sea freight route , with more than 50 cargo ships travelling through the 193.30km channel every day .
And , as we saw last year , if there ’ s any sort of disruption there are major ramifications . The 400m long Ever Given ran aground due to high winds and became wedged across the canal . It took a six day salvage operation to free the vessel , and the Suez Canal Authority demanded compensation from insurers and the Ever Given ’ s Japanese owners of around US $ 550m for the disruption caused . n
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DID YOU KNOW ? The Statue of Liberty was originally designed for the Suez Canal . The sculpture , called ‘ Egypt Bringing Light to Asia ’ was a 90-foot tall statue of a woman in Egyptian peasant clothing and holding a torch – which would also act as a lighthouse . The project never happened , of course , and in 1886 sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi eventually found a taker for the idea in New York !
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The canal is at the centre of the Suez Crisis , as British , Israeli and French troops launch an attack on Egypt – only backing off after condemnation from the US and the threat of an attack from Russia . |
The canal was deepened to accommodate ever-bigger vessels , and a new 22-mile lane was created . |